The report says that ISIS has some financial problems owing to the lost territory, but continues to collect taxes in its limited areas of control, and is supplementing that with “discrete” funding from supporters, and robberies.

Their command structure also appears largely intact, with the report saying that they’ve been delegating specific actions down to local commanders more, and increasingly using encryption to prevent interception of their communications.

This has been the story of ISIS since before they took on the name ISIS, as even back when they were simply “al-Qaeda in Iraq,” the group showed a remarkable ability to adapt to changing situations and recover quickly from what were seemingly major losses.

Author: Jason Ditz

Of course ISIS is adapting; for Baghdadi’s sake, this is far too useful a tool to throw away. Just like al Qaeda, they’ll have to be rebranded as the “good guys” against Russia and Iran in the near future.

ISIS was and is getting serious external support from the Gulf States. This is proven by the fact that they can still operate now that most of their lands are taken and virtually all of their money producing assets in Syria / Iraq.